The primary function of the Administrative Core is to ensure that the specific aims and scientific objectives of the Center and its projects are carried out efficiently and successfully. Responsibility for this function falls primarily to the components and personnel of the Administrative Core (i.e., the Director, Associate Director, Steering Committee). Several mechanisms have been established that promote the integration of Center research, achieve cross-fertilization and synergies between labs and projects, and ensure that information from one project informs the directions and interpretation of results in other projects. The goal is to ensure that the Center is more than the sum of its parts and provides added value beyond that which the individual projects would achieve if they were carried out independently (although it is highly unlikely that without a Center they would even be done). These mechanisms include monthly seminars, a monthly journal club, bi-annual scientific reviews by a National Scientific Advisory Committee, monthly Steering Committee meetings, a website and intranet for Center information and communications, a Center publication policy that encourages the development of translational reports and joint theoretical articles, integrated training programs, and a plan for information dissemination and outreach.